Thursday, September 29, 2005

In the Sandbox...

Mother, Son Serve Together at Navistar

CAMP NAVISTAR, Kuwait - Many servicemembers keep in touch with their family, especially their mothers, whenever they can during a deployment to keep them from worrying. Whether it’s a letter, photograph, package or telephone call, just hearing from them is important.

One mother and son are able to not only communicate but see each other whenever they want ever since deploying together to Kuwait in January with the 172nd Military Police Battalion, Task Force Green Mountain.

With two separate missions at Camp Navistar, Cpl. Julie Robertson, Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 172nd MP Bn. unit armorer, and Sgt. Ryan Brown, Company A, 172nd MP Bn. security forces, keep an eye on each other as often as they can. “We are very fortunate to be in the same unit and to be at the same camp in theater,” Brown said. “I feel better that I’m here and not somewhere else while she is deployed … so I know what’s going on.”

This isn’t the first deployment for Brown, a former active-duty Army ranger who deployed with the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division to Afghanistan for Operation Anaconda from 2001 to 2002. Now he is protecting Navistar with the security force team, which houses not only his military family but his mother as well. “I feel really safe that he is on camp with me,” Robertson said. But it’s not like Robertson is new to the Army and needs her son to survive.

Though this is her first deployment, Robertson spent four years in active duty before joining the National Guard, where she has accumulated almost six more years of service. Though at times some people lightly tease them at the fact that they are at the same camp, they both enjoy the laughs and each others’ friendship. “He harasses me … he pulls rank on me,” Robertson said jokingly. “We are not in the same chain of command … so we don’t have to worry about that.” The fun doesn’t stop there between the two.

Brown usually gives his mom a card on holidays, but not your usual ones. For Christmas, he gave her a card that had Happy Thanksgiving crossed out and Merry Christmas written in its place, Robertson said. Though there isn’t much for a mother and son to do together at Navistar, the two get the chance to eat meals together whenever their missions have them on downtime at the same time. “It is nice to know that he is on camp and that we can share a meal together,” Robertson said. -by Spc. Robert AdamsCFLCC PAO/11th PAD